Phil SumblerStoke boss Michael O’Neill was naturally happy after watching his side pull apart the Swans 3-0 at the Bet365 Stadium last night but he pointed to other games where he felt the performance was better and the rewards had not been there.
He referenced performances against both Huddersfield and Fulham as better benchmarks of his side whilst praising those that found themselves on the scoresheet in a very one sided game.
Three second half goals gave the home side a very comfortable win on a night where they could easily have scored more and dominated the Swans in every single aspect of the game pretty much from the first whistle.
“It was a good performance.ย We were very good in the first half without breaking the deadlock,” said O’Neill after the game.
“We scored early in the second half and then it seemed like just a case of how many.ย Obviously the man going off helped but I am not sure it helped our performance as it can be more difficult to play against ten men.”
When asked if it was as well as Stoke had played this season, O’Neill was not convinced.ย “You are asking me that because we won 3-0 but I thought we played well here against Fulham and lost 3-2 so you don’t need to benchmark performances against anything.
“We started on the front foot at the start of the game which is something we always tried to do.ย It was important to get the goal at the start of the second half because you can start to feel its not your night.ย We had a lot of opportunities in the first half and you can start to think when are you going to get the goal.
“We want the same level of performance now every week.ย Performances have been good and we need to continue to develop as a team and be more clinical as well.”
